


Crimson Days: Crimson

by BattleScarredRaven



Series: Crimson Days 2021 [1]
Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Crimson Days 2021, F/M, Gen, Is this part of my Ikora/Zavala verse I've been building up?, You bet your dang ass it is lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 12:27:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29260467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BattleScarredRaven/pseuds/BattleScarredRaven
Summary: Bungie cancelled Crimson Days. Time to bring it back with some one-shot writing prompts.Prompts list taken fromhereandhere.Day 1: CrimsonAfter negotiations break down, Caiatl attacks the Last City. It's deja vu for Zavala as he attempts to rescue that which is closest to him.
Relationships: Ikora Rey/Zavala, Suraya Hawthorne & Zavala
Series: Crimson Days 2021 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2148726
Kudos: 5





	Crimson Days: Crimson

**Author's Note:**

> I'm actually doing a goddang prompt list! Not done one of these in a while.

_“_ **_You were given a choice. Now let blood beget blood as we face each other on the field of battle and I finish what that pathetic runt who dared call himself a Dominus could not; bring this system and you ‘Guardians’ to heel.”_ **

**_“The only blood that will be spilled here shall be yours, not ours. The City bows to no-one.”_ **

\- Empress Caiatl and Commander Zavala.

* * *

_Burning and smoke assailed Zavala’s nostrils as he ran through streets that he had hoped he would never again see war-torn in his long lifetime after the devastation wrought during the Red War. Then, as now, the mighty Cabal war machine was once again being brought to bear upon the City he had been charged with protection - albeit it in different form - and once again, he was failing its people. He had the excuse of the Red Legion having the element of surprise last time, but there had been nothing unexpected about Caiatl’s attack. They had_ **_spoken_ ** _; she had_ **_warned_ ** _him. And yet…_

_And yet, and yet, and yet…_

_He raised his Origin Story auto rifle, blasting a salvo of rounds into a trio of psions attempting to harass some nearby civilians, allowing them to escape towards an awaiting City Hawk transport hovering in a clearing. He snapped off a few more shots in order to defend the transport as it wheeled away and escaped the burning City, assisted by the deafening cracks of sniper fire nearby._

_“Thought you could use a hand.” Hawthorne’s voice, both matter-of-fact and full of casual sarcasm in the same breath, filled Zavala’s comms._

_“Your assistance is greatly appreciated.” He answered her, ever the stoic Commander, wiping the back of one hand to his forehead. He was unsurprised to see it come away bloody; he had come under heavy fire before getting to the clearing and suspected a few of the Cabal shots had grazed him, if not hit him outright. “Are you able to remain here and keep this area clear for an LZ? The transports evacuating civilians need a rendezvous point and right now, this is the only option we have.”_

_“Got some of my best here with me and a few of Dallas’ Ravens with me, so I should be good.” Hawthorne’s reply came after another round from her sniper felled a distant Centurion. “Where the hell are you going? You’re wounded!”_

_“Superficial. Nothing Targe can’t handle.” Zavala assured her._

_“Still doesn’t answer my question, you know.”_

_“I’m going to the Tower to rally the Guardians there and help better coordinate the defenses there. From the little radio chatter I’ve managed to pick up from there, they are struggling, even with Shaxx, Saint and Osiris leading them.”_

_It was the truth, or at least part of it. Zavala had been down in the City’s archives looking for any records of weapons or defenses that could help push back their numerous foes. As soon as Caiatl’s forces had hit, the first two places he had gone to was his apartment and Ikora’s to look for both the Warlock and their son; neither location had yielded results._

_Hawthorne knew this was only half the truth, too. “You don’t have to pretend, Zavala. I know you’re worried about them. Maybe Dallas or Amanda found them already and they are on their way out of the City. You never know.”_

_“I know, but when you have lived as long as I have…” The Awoken Titan clutched his gun tighter. “Call it a gut feeling.”_

_“Yeah, well, don’t let your gut feeling blind you to the many others that need help, too.”_

_“I won’t.” Zavala promised her. “Good luck, Hawthorne.”_

_“You too, Zavala. And if I see Ikora and Kayde here, I’ll be getting them straight onto a transport. Don’t you worry.”_

_“Knowing Ikora, she will want to wait for me. Make sure she doesn’t.”_

_Silence filled the comms for a moment, before Hawthorne’s next reply came, quiet and seemingly taken aback. “Understood.”_

_Zavala nodded in the general direction Hawthorne’s sniper shots had been coming from before taking off towards the Tower, the coppery smell of blood replacing that of the smoke and fire as the tiny wound on his forehead trickled a crimson river down his shimmering, Awoken blue skin._

_It didn’t matter though. None of it mattered. He would gladly suffer a wound or two if it meant just one more person made it out alive from the City._

_And he would gladly suffer a thousand more on top of that, be soaked head to toe in red, if it meant Ikora and their son escaped this mess alive._

_The mess he had made. The mess he would fix. The mess he would pay in blood for, if it came to it. Caiatl could break him, beat him bloody, destroy his very mind and spirit before he would ever kneel before her. There was only one person Zavala would ever consider bowing for, and that was the one he sought to free from this madness._

_And oh, how he would bleed to make sure she was safe…_


End file.
